KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th June, 2020) A rally to support the Belarusian opposition in the lead-up to the presidential election in the country has been held on Sunday on Kiev's central Maidan Nezalezhnosti square, the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported.
The Belarusian election, scheduled for August 9, has galvanized Belarusian citizens behind different candidates and prompted disparate rallies. Last week, the State Control Committee of Belarus detained Viktar Babaryka, a former banker and a presidential contender, as part of a criminal probe into tax evasion and money laundering involving Belgazprombank. Another aspiring candidate, opposition YouTuber Syarhei Tsikhanouski was earlier put in detention. Incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, who is running for his sixth term, has criticized the protests as misguided.
According to the Ukrainian broadcaster, after having gathered on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, protesters moved to Hrushevsky street to lay flowers to a memorial established in honor of Belarusian citizen Mikhail Zhyzneuski who was killed during the 2014 Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.
After that, participants of the rally returned to the square demanding fair presidential election in Belarus before moving towards the Belarus embassy to Kiev.
A separate march was held in Kiev on Sunday against possible revision of Ukraine language law after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that it was necessary to determine whether quotas for using Ukrainian as the main language in various areas were fair enough. Participants of the protests are warning the authorities against destructive steps in the cultural area, demanding Kiev to stop attacking the language sphere.
